(Text and Audio)
Title: The Transfiguration, Part Two
Let’s take a little survey as we begin this morning. How many of you, by show of hands, would be interested if I told you that tonight, at 6PM, President Finkes from AU would be speaking at our church and you were all invited?
Okay, now suppose for a moment it was not President Finkes, but former U.S. President George W. Bush?
And, work with me here, let’s now suppose it was Former President Abraham Lincoln, how many of you would do whatever it took to rearrange your schedule to be here?
(Why?)
Well, today we have an exceedingly rare opportunity. We have a chance to study the words of God the Father himself as he speaks to this group gathered at the transfiguration. This is very rare in the New Testament, so I want us to look closely at what the father says, albeit brief, so that we can wean every morsel possible from it.
(Read/Pray)
We see that Jesus has heard these words before if we compare this with Matthew 3:17 “And suddenly a voice came from Heaven, saying, “This is My beloved So, in whom I am well pleased.”
As we stated last week, we see two times when the Father’s voice and presence acknowledge these two facts. We talked about how these appearances by God the Father occur at two particular times in Jesus’ ministry. The first, or course, is at the establishment of Jesus’s ministry as he is being baptized by his cousin, the forerunner, John the Baptist.
The second time it takes place, it isn’t at the end of Jesus’s ministry, but rather right before the final preparations for Jesus’s fateful trip into Jerusalem where he begins His passion. Let’s take a moment to look at what we can wean from what the Father actually says:
1. Jesus is God’s Son
2. The Father is pleased with Him
3. Hear him.
The first point, that Jesus is indeed God’s son would have done at least one thing for the 3 human witnesses (Peter, James, John) that were present during the event: It would have solidified, once and for all, who, exactly, Jesus is. If God appears in a cloud, after you already seen Moses and Elijah, and God says: “This is my son.” That would pretty much seal the deal for me.
It would eradicate ANY doubt as to who Jesus is, but it wouldn’t necessarily make it any easier to follow Jesus. How do we know this? Well, for example, one of the people that is there, Peter, has at least two less-than-stellar moments as a believer recorded in scripture AFTER the transfiguration. (Can anyone name them?)
1. The denial
2. The conflict with Paul over who he’s eating with at Antioch (Galatians 2)
This brings us to our first key point: Knowing what is truth does not necessarily mean we will practice truth.
How many of you like cookies? Name some ingredients of cookies.
Now, imagine I travelled deep into the heart of Amish country (not hard to imagine) in order to secure what was, without debate, the creamiest, richest butter known to mankind, and I plopped this butter into evenly shaped dollops on a cookie sheet, but them into the oven, baked them for 25 minutes, pulled them out and presented them to you as the best cookies you’d ever taste.
You’d look at me like I was crazy. (Or, if you were my wife, you’d look at me like she does any time I try to cook.)
Some of us believe that the answer to our christian walk growing in maturity is to increase our knowledge. We read two books a week on theology, we study the church fathers, we read commentaries, we read our scriptures.
Now, is any of this bad? No. In fact, all of it is essential, but it is not complete. Good butter can make or break how good a cookie will be, but butter alone can never complete a cookie.
Our knowledge is an ingredient, but it is not the final product. Knowing truth is essential, but we see today from Peter that even God himself telling Peter that Jesus is his son will not cause Peter to act that way all the time.
We need to be mindful that knowledge, experiences, service, humility, accountability, all of these go into the mixing bowl of living out our faith, and that is when we grow in Christ. Knowledge alone will never be enough.
The second thing that the Father says is the he is pleased with Jesus. Now, I want to ask you a very important question, think about it for a moment before you answer: What would it take for God the Father to be pleased with Jesus at this point?
(Take Answers)
All of those are good answers, but the main one is this: Jesus is without sin. At no point in Jesus’s ministry did he even have a moment in his heart or brain that displeased the Father.
You and I think stupid, sinful things all the time that we never act on, thank God! Paul reminds us of this inevitability of the human mind in 2 Corinthians 10 when he tells us to “take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ.”
Jesus never had to do that. He never had a thought, not even a thought, that was outside of the Father’s pleasure.
It is truly staggering when we consider what type of life and ministry Jesus had to lead if he was to be able to be presented to the Father as a sacrifice worthy to cover our sins. The next time you pray, I mean this, thank your savior for the thoroughness of his mission.
The final thing that the Father says is something that is not recorded during the pronouncement at Jesus’s baptism. The Father says, “Hear him.”
Now, the reason I think this is fascinating is because of who the audience was. This was a specific message from God the Father to these three men, Peter, James, and John.
It obviously wasn’t for Jesus, and not for Moses and Elijah, so The Father speaks directly to these three and commands them to hear his son. I think part of the key to fully appreciating what the Father is saying to to consider the context, not just who the audience is, but who else is present.
Moses: God spoke to his people through the Law
Elijah: God spoke to his people through the Prophets
Jesus: God is NOW speaking to his people through his son
This brings us to a few acceptable conclusions:
1. The weight of the words of Jesus are just as binding as the Law and the Prophets.
2. There is something necessary for these three men in particular to receive the truth of Jesus’s identity, to pass that proclamation on in due time, and to lead the people in this knowledge in the future.
Let me put this another way. A young believer, or a seeker, might read this passage and ask the very good point: Okay, I understand why God would want to validate the authority and identity of Jesus in the presence of the apostles. It was good for them to see that happen so they could, without any doubt, push forward and truly understand the crucifixion and the message of the Gospel, but what was the purpose of Moses and Elijah being present, was it just to impress the apostles?
No. It was much more than that.
It was to show that everything these three JEWISH men had known and understood about God, (the LAW and the PROPHETS) was now superseded in authority by the words of Jesus the Messiah.
Think of it this way, back in the sermon on the mount, Jesus says, quite a few times, “You have heard it said” (A reference to the LAW) “but I tell you.”
And the thought had to cross the minds of these apostles, “Can he do that? Can he say that? Is that okay? By what authority is Jesus able to speak these things?”
After this event on the mountain, the Father himself and undoubtedly sealed the authority of Jesus permanently in the minds of these three men who would go on the start and serve the early church.
Furthermore, the Father and Jesus knew that this event was being recorded, that it would be become a pivotal part of the Gospel narrative and that billions of people would read of this account and it would solidify (for the elect at least) that basis for the authority that Jesus claims to have.
In case I’ve done a poor job of enthusiastically demonstrating this, let me just say it: This is mind-blowing high level theology here today. What God does is so much more than a mere endorsement of his Son’s work. He has explained the connection between The Father’s previous methods of delivering his word and the current revelation of Jesus as the Christ.
It is good that we recognize the cosmic authority of Christ.
It is even better that we know why we recognize it.
(pray)